NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENTS

Proposals Selected Under NRA-98-OES-05

NASA's Office of Earth Sciences has begun a new program to develop and demonstrate new measurement technologies through ground-based laboratory activities. The Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) will reduce the risk, cost, size, and development time of Earth-observing instruments and enable new Earth-observation measurements.

"This new program is intended to bring together technological capabilities of academia, industry and government to enable NASA's Earth Sciences enterprise to accomplish its scientific and applications objectives," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for Earth Sciences, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. "Through this program we intend to introduce technological innovations into the science and applications programs more frequently and reduce development time and risk, lowering the cost of future missions."

NASA received 123 proposals of which 27 have been selected. Selected projects include three from industry, six from NASA field centers, eight from universities and ten from national laboratories. The dollar value of the first round of IIP awards is approximately $20 million. Areas for instrument development within the program include land-cover and land-use change and global productivity research; seasonal-to-interannual climate variability and prediction; natural hazards research and applications; and long-term climate observations -- natural variability and change research, and atmospheric ozone research.

The IIP will enable members of the scientific community to propose, build and launch new Earth Science payloads within a three to four-year period. By focusing on a short turnaround time, NASA hopes to minimize cost while encouraging creative new designs for Earth Science instruments. This program represents the first time that the Earth Sciences enterprise has solicited technology proposals, establishing a benchmark for future solicitations.

Allen, Christopher T., University of KansasDevelopment of a Hybrid F/Laser Radarabstract